1091

Man Arrested for Creating Fake Bands With AI, Then Making $10 Million by Listening to Their Songs With Bots (futurism.com)

submitted 2 months ago by ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net to c/technology@lemmy.world

229 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The songs that the AI CEO provided to Smith originally had file names full of randomized numbers and letters such as "n_7a2b2d74-1621-4385-895d-b1e4af78d860.mp3," the DOJ noted in its detailed press release.

When uploading them to streaming platforms, including Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube Music, the man would then change the songs' names to words like "Zygotes," "Zygotic," and "Zyme Bedewing," whatever that is.

The artist naming convention also followed a somewhat similar pattern, with names ranging from the normal-sounding "Calvin Mann" to head-scratchers like "Calorie Event," "Calms Scorching," and "Calypso Xored."

To manufacture streams for these fake songs, Smith allegedly used bots that stream the songs billions of times without any real person listening. As with similar schemes, the bots' meaningless streams were ultimately converted to royalty paychecks for the people behind them.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Yeah, it's an exploit but it doesn't seem illegal. It seems like the issue is with whatever service. They need to fix their contract or their software. Maybe it is in the contract or EULA that you can't do this sort of thing already though, in which case it's fair game.

[-] futatorius@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago

Maybe it is in the contract or EULA that you can’t do this sort of thing already though

Then that would be a civil matter and he wouldn't have been arrested for it.

[-] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 months ago

I mean, being arrested doesn't mean a crime was committed. It means he's accused of a crime. I'll be interested to see if there is actually a conviction in the end.

[-] xthexder@l.sw0.com 6 points 2 months ago

Exactly, I don't think there was anything illegal here. At best it's breach of contract with Spotify or whoever, and they could get sued. MAYBE there's some interpretation of fraud that could apply? But it's not like he sold anything and misrepresented it.

this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2024

1091 points (99.0% liked)

Technology

59583 readers

3442 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS